Issue 65 of Electronic Gaming Monthly reveals that Tekken was originally titled "Rave War" during its beta testing. It was later renamed to Tekken when it first came out on arcade machines. Interestingly, some of Lee Chaolan's combos contain "Rave War" in their name, a likely nod to the original title.

The Tekken 6: Bloodline Rebellion Artbook states that Tiger Jackson came from an early design concept for Eddy Gordo.Despite initially appearing as an alternative appearance for Eddy, he is later treated as a separate character.

In an EDGE magazine interview with Katsuhiro Harada, he states that Paul Phoenix's hairstyle and first name are based on Jean Pierre Polnareff from JoJo's Bizarre Adventure. Masamichi Abe, a member of the original Tekken planning team, was a fan of the series.